


Survivor's Colony

by Dragonwolf_Dreamwalker



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Shorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 18:02:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18816154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonwolf_Dreamwalker/pseuds/Dragonwolf_Dreamwalker
Summary: The dead(?) have risen. No one knows how or why, and it's been long enough that it doesn't really matter anymore. What matters now is survival -- and that just got a whole lot more difficult.





	Survivor's Colony

**Date:** 15 years after the dead rise  
**Location:** A small survivor’s colony, somewhere north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“Tell me again what it was like when you were little, Auntie Kenzie,” the 10 year old looks up at her guardian from her bed with big, green eyes, awaiting her bedtime story.

Mackenzie looks at the young Andrea with a longing smile, remembering a time when the sun shined brightly on foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, making the river sparkle. She must have told the girl the story a thousand times, but it never ceased to amaze and intrigue the girl that the world she lived in once thrived with wonderful colors and sounds, a stark contrast from what it now was – always gray, long-lasting remnants of a desperate battle between those who still had their minds in tact and those….who didn’t. Even worse, it seemed that the creatures had embraced a technology that made everything so gray, and used it to their advantage. Remnants, perhaps, of their once-human knowledge.

In this world of eternal twilight, the days were getting darker, allowing the creatures to stay out longer, not needing the dark, abandoned buildings for fear of the sun’s extreme heat and brightness that hurt their eyes and burned their skin. Because of this, they were getting bolder, staging attacks closer and closer to noon, instead of waiting for dusk. The tireless monsters came a little earlier and stayed a little later each day. Everyone at the colony knew they wouldn’t be safe for long. The walls around the colony, designed to withstand the nocturnal prodding, could not withstand the constant onslaught of the creatures throwing themselves into the electrified fence and outer wooden spikes, searching for weak spots.

The window to follow the monsters back to their lair is shrinking. The time to strike is upon them. Mackenzie doesn’t know if she will make it back tonight.

But for the moment, she tells Andrea her story.

* * *

The sentinel flashes his light twice at the small group below, the signal that, at least for the moment, the creatures have relented and have started returning to their lair. Mackenzie leads her group of scouts behind trees, shrubs, and rocks in hidden pursuit of a group of zombies.

Ranulf, a large, muscular man, aims his rifle, so tempted to just shoot them now. “Filthy monsters,” he spits as his companion, Akando, places a lean hand on his shoulder, a silent reminder of their day’s mission. “I know, I know. It don't mean I’m not still tempted, though.”

“Look at it this way, you’ll be able to blow bunches of ‘em up once we find them.”

“Yeah, if Mac ever lets us actually do anything to 'em.”

“Shut up, you two, unless you want to get eaten alive,” Mackenzie hisses at the pair. She was only 15 when it happened, but even so, she is now among the oldest of the survivors in the colony. Ranulf and Akando, both barely 20, don't even remember what it was like before the dead rose. For all intents and purposes, they grew up in the colony after being rescued by a mutual neighbor. They never really saw the carnage of the first battle, an event that is now seared into Mackenzie's mind. They're cocky in their youth, and in this world, cockiness doesn't last long. Nothing does.

The trio follow the pack downriver. By the time they get to the lair, it's nearing dark. What they see in the fading light astounds them.  
“Have they started evolving back or something?” Akando gapes at the fire pit, encircled by huts. One creature, adorned with marks, lights the fire, which stays more like glowing embers. Everything is rudimentary, especially compared to the survivor’s colony, but it is the biggest display of advancement any of the survivors have seen.

The group watch from the safety of the brush as a few creatures come out with drums. The drummers start playing, slowly at first, then picking up speed. The rhythm is very basic and often repeating, but still mesmerizing to the onlookers. A few more creatures join the drummers, starting into a dance around the fire. It's more jumping than dancing, but there's an obvious order to it, as well as a hierarchy. The one who lit the fire watches the display in quiet contemplation.

The drums grow louder.

The creatures make no noise over the beating of the drums, but the sound of bones clapping together chime in from somewhere out of sight. Alone, the bones also create a basic pattern, but with the drums, a new, more complex rhythm is born.

The drums grow louder.

* * *

All is quiet at the survivor's colony. Only the lookouts are awake, watching over the sleepers in the underground quarters, waiting for the scouts to return. There is an unease among the lookouts, however. It's been too still tonight. The zombies, who usually fill the night with their howling and the rattling of the fence, haven't been seen since the scouting party left.

Underground, the silence is broken by the screams of sleepers as they awake to the cold, bony hands of their captors. The lookouts leap off their posts to find the source of the intrusion. To their horror, they find a hole large enough for a creature to crawl through and to drag a captive out. Someone rings the emergency bell, alerting the rest of the sleepers in an attempt to fend off the attackers. The ringing is short-lived as the bell ringer gets swarmed.

There are too many zombies, though, and they tear through the colony, killing or capturing everyone they find. The ones they kill, they tear apart, but barely eat. At most, they take a bite from a limb and move on. Before long, all that remains are the mangled bodies of the dead and the blood-soaked ground on which they were killed.


End file.
